Under Fire
by fkSG
Summary: Goren, Eames, Briscoe and Green investigate sniper shootings of two cops 1/1


Under Fire 5/27/03  
  
Author: FK  
  
Rating: PG-13 (Violence, Angst)   
  
Part 1/1  
  
Thanks to Emily for being my Beta.   
  
Under Fire  
  
Eames' POV  
  
I love my partner. Not the kind of love that leads to romance. When I tell friends I have a male partner, I get two questions: Is he cute and if I've slept with him. I find it annoying that so many people assume men and women can't be friends without leading to some kind of entanglement. Of course, if my friends ever saw Bobby sniffing a body or touching a dead person's eyeballs, they would never make those jokes again. Even if I was interested in him, which I'm not, I don't think it would phase him. Bobby lives in his own world, vaguely aware there is a world outside profiling and books.   
  
No, I love my partner because he respects me. A man as brilliant as Bobby might take one look at me and my blue collar background and dismiss me. But not Bobby, he believes in my intelligence and my ability. I love his chivalry. On a case once, an exhibitionist  
  
veterinarian thought he was being funny by stripping in front of me. I found it highly amusing. Bobby, on the other hand, felt the need to protect me and placed himself between this man and me. He's aware I can  
  
handle myself, but he did this because despite that he is some times detached and distant, I know deep down he is a sweet gentle person who believes his work is always for the sake of good.   
  
We were working a pretty intense case. Two random sniper shootings of police officers. I was taking it pretty hard. After all, I come from a family of cops. We shared the case with homicide. During their   
  
investigation, they found a suspect but it turned out he was only aiding the shooter. They called in Bobby because they couldn't get him to break. But even Bobby, who I've seen make grown men cry, couldn't get him to talk. He however, did figure out that it was the suspect who called 911 to lure the two officers into the trap. But that was all he could learn. The suspect had a severe hatred of cops, so much so that he stopped talking and refused to say a word for three hours.   
  
We went with the two homicide detectives who we've meet once before, Ed Green and Lennie Briscoe, to the scene of the first shooting. The scene was very distressing to me. A 911 call had come in about shots  
  
in the alleyway. The alleyway had no cover, no whereto run but a small make shift shanty that probably once provided shade for a garden. There was a factory with no windows on one side and a boarded up abandoned   
  
building on the other. Another factory was at the end of the alleyway behind a fence made it a dead end. No where to run and nowhere to hide.   
  
Ed and Lennie watched as my partner took apart the crime scene. His brilliance was almost dazzling, sometimes it was so intense that it baffled me. He pinpointed the spot where the officer had fell. I  
  
could still see the blood. Bobby empathized with him. The officer had been a rookie. His partner was close behind. She had also gotten shot, not fatally, trying to protect him and managed to pull him back to the police car. The papers called her a hero cop, but her partner died before the ambulance arrived.   
  
My partner walked closer to the shanty and the three of us followed. It was damn cold out. I wished I had worn a sweater instead of a jacket under my coat.   
  
Bobby was attempting to find out where the shooter had been standing. He looked up and raised his finger to the factory with no windows to pinpoint the exact location. I saw a beam of light in his face. It  
  
looked like the sun, but when I realized what it was panic set in. Bobby's face showed a similar panic.  
  
Before I could go to him, he screamed "Eames! Move!" and ran towards me. That's when I heard the first shot. It had been a scope that was reflected into Bobby's eyes and if he hadn't moved, there would be a  
  
bullet in his head.   
  
I didn't even get a chance to think. My main concern was for us to find cover and quickly. We were to far into the alley to get back to the street. As I ran to the shanty, I could feel Bobby behind me. Ed and Lennie were running in front of me.   
  
When I got to the shanty, I felt myself being shoved roughly forward. I fell to the ground and hit the pavement hard. My knees smacked the ground so hard I knew there would be bruises. I used my hands to  
  
protect my face. There were a few more shots and then they stopped.  
  
"Oh Jesus," I heard Ed said. "Oh god. Call an ambulance!"  
  
What was he talking about? I wasn't hurt. I hit the pavement pretty hard but I didn't feel anything that might require a hospital stay. I probably get a lot of bruises on my legs and knees. I looked up and balanced myself on my arms. Lennie was talking rapidly into his cell asking for immediate medical assistance. Ed and Bobby must be behind me. I heard them moving. I wasn't wounded. Was Ed?  
  
"Are you all right, Detective Eames? Do you need some help up?" Ed said. There was a chill in his voice. He wasn't hurt, but something was wrong. I shook my head. I hadn't been shot, but I could feel the bruise forming on my right knee. I pulled myself up and turned around.  
  
Then I realized it wasn't me who was injured. It was Bobby. Bobby was lying next to me on his back and there was a lot of blood coming out of his right side.  
  
Ed had a handkerchief, saturated with Bobby's blood, on the wound. Bobby's coat and jacket was open and the blood was a bright contrast against his white shirt.   
  
Now I knew why I hit the pavement so hard. My chivalrous partner had pushed me out of the way of a bullet.   
  
For a split second, I was angry. I could handle myself. But seeing Bobby lying there, bleeding, my anger quickly faded to concern.  
  
"Bobby," I said, moving over to him. Ed had stopped using his handkerchief, which was now completely soaked in blood, and was now using his jacket to put pressure on the wound.   
  
"It isn't bad," Bobby said breathlessly, but I knew it was. He was breathing heavily and I could tell he was in pain, but would never admit it. "It's not fatal if you can get me to the hospital."  
  
I knew what he meant. The sniper had cut off our access. There was no way to get into the building except a heating duct built for a small child. Lennie was talking to someone on the radio telling them the  
  
situation.  
  
"We have to get him out of here," Ed said to me. "The bleeding is pretty heavy."  
  
"I'm open to ideas."  
  
"Do you think he's still out there?" Ed asked, looking at the alleyway.  
  
"Why don't you go and find out?" I snapped. Ed looked at me with puppy dog eyes. I was sorry I snapped at him, but my main concern was to get Bobby out of here.  
  
"The cavalry is on the way," Lennie said. "I suggest we sit tight."  
  
I nodded. I took off my coat and place it over Bobby. He was so pale. The color had already drained from his cheeks.   
  
"I don't need it, you'll freeze," he said as I handed him my coat.  
  
"I won't," He tried to hand the coat back to me, but I held it down. He relented quickly. I knew the wound had to be bad; Bobby rarely relents.   
  
I can hear the sirens coming. The sniper will probably flee when they get here and this nightmare will be over.  
  
A moment after I heard the sound of tires shrieking, there are more shots.  
  
"He's not moving," Bobby said, weakly. "He wants one of us dead. He's desperate. There is no way for him to escape, not this time. Last time, he was able to get out before the cops came," Bobby's voice trailed off.   
  
"He probably wants all of us dead," I agreed.   
  
A call on Briscoe's phone confirmed what Bobby said. The sniper was not letting them anywhere near us or near the building. We are his ostages and he wasn't negotiating.  
  
We're trapped.   
  
I looked around. The shooter was on top of the factory, which is the lowest building at only four stories.   
  
"He knows he hit me," Bobby said weakly. "He knows there is no way out, but he wants to take out as many of us as he can." Bobby coughed and shuddered a bit.   
  
"Easy, Detective Goren," Ed said.   
  
I looked around again desperately. There had got to be something I could do. I wasn't about to let my partner bleed to death in an alley.   
  
I looked at the heating duct. If I took off my jacket, I can get through. I hoped I could get to the roof.  
  
"I'm going through the heating duct," I told them. "If I can get to the roof, I can shoot that SOB."  
  
"You're going to do what?" Ed said. "Are you crazy?"  
  
"I'm not going to let Bobby bleed to death. It's our only option. Briscoe, tell them what I'm planning to do."  
  
"You can get to the roof. It's a tight fit," Bobby said, "but that squeeze should give you the momentum to get up. But that's not your problem?" He paused. I think he's going to say more, but instead he goes into a coughing fit.   
  
"That's it," I said, pulling off my jacket, revealing my naked arms to the cold air. "I'm going in."   
  
"He'll see you," Bobby said recovering from his coughing fit, which had ended for now. "He's facing this direction."  
  
I sigh. He's right. If I got to the roof, the sniper would see me and I'd be as good as dead.   
  
"I'll draw his fire," Ed said.  
  
"What?" I said. "I can't risk that."   
  
Ed lifted up his jacket from Bobby's wound. The blood soaked it and it did not look like it was stopping. A pool of it was already on the ground. Bobby paleness had almost faded to a shade of white and his breathing was shallow. I knew he could lose consciousness soon.  
  
Ed grabbed a lid from a nearby trashcan.   
  
"This should give me some cover. At least long enough until you hit him."  
  
"I can't," I said. "I can't imagine that lid protecting you."  
  
Ed's eyes moved to Bobby's. Bobby's eyes were closed. His breaths were loud and shaky and I knew he was having trouble breathing.   
  
"He doesn't have long. Just enough time for you to climb up there." Ed said breaking the silence.   
  
"You have their blessings," Briscoe said. "They think there is roof access via the heating duct."  
  
I nod. I took the jacket from Ed and held it to Bobby's wound. His warm blood soaked my hand. Lennie and Ed went to the heating duct and with three swift tugs got the cover off.  
  
"Blood is a good lubricator," Bobby said, his eyes were now slightly open but they looked hazy and cloudy. He was starting to fade away.   
  
Lennie took my place and I went over to the duct and climbed in.   
  
"I don't use anyones blood to pull me through." I mumbled under my breath, taking one last look at Bobby.   
  
I got filthier and filthier as I crawled my way up. I thought of Bobby instead of how dirty and cold I was or the movements around me that I swore were rats. It seemed like I was climbing for hours but I knew it  
  
couldn't be that long. I finally saw light. I was hoping it was the roof. I let my cell phone ring once. That would tell them I'm at the top so Ed could distract him. I hoped my plan wouldn't get Ed killed.  
  
A moment later I could hear the shots. I climbed towards the light. I could see him out of the heating duct. A man, white skinned with glasses, was shooting at Ed. The sniper wasn't moving which meant Ed was not moving either. I hoped he was okay.   
  
I only had one shot as I managed to wiggle the gun up to the top. One shot and if I missed, I may not get another one before he kills me. Three dead police officers. My father would be proud of me.   
  
One shot.  
  
I think about Bobby's respect, concentrate on the target and fire.  
  
I hit him and he goes down. At first, I don't care if he's alive or dead. I climbed out of the heating duct, fall to the floor and then pull myself up. I am covered in dirt and have some new bruises to boot.  
  
It's still damn cold out. I walk over to him with my gun out.  
  
"Police!" I said. "Don't move!"  
  
He wasn't going anywhere. I had hit him on the left side of his chest, very close to where he hit Bobby on the right. It made me think of Bobby as good and this guy as evil.  
  
The guy is lying on the ground, breathing heavily. His glasses had fallen off. The rifle is next to him. There are several cases of bullets next to him. He had come back to this roof to pick off the cops that came back after the initial investigation. I kick the  
  
gun away from his hand and then go to help him.   
  
  
  
"This is the way it ends," he told me. "As I expected it would be. I knew the cops would one day kill me, I decided to get them first."  
  
I want to tell him he shot my partner and what a good person Bobby is. I don't. I call for an ambulance on my cell phone, read him his rights and don't respond to the talk about how I'm here to kill him. I  
  
actually take his jacket and put pressure on the wound. Five minutes later, a group of paramedics arrive followed by some detectives. The paramedics give me a blanket. I'm still freezing, but it helps. The detectives want to talk to me about the shooting, but even Arthur Branch couldn't keep me on this freezing roof.  
  
Briscoe is waiting for me downstairs. He has my coat and Bobby's notebook, I won't take my coat because it's completely covered with Bobby's blood. I keep the blanket instead and take Bobby's notebook. I knew he would be devastated if anything happened to it. Ed was shot once in the arm but I stopped the perp from killing him. I felt guilty about getting him shot, but Briscoe said the paramedics told him that Bobby was in serious condition and in maybe another 15 minutes, the  
  
situation would have been dire. They had taken Ed and Bobby in the same ambulance. Another one had come for the sniper. I don't want to look at him, all I wanted to do was see Bobby.  
  
They still want to talk to me about the shooting, but Lennie dragged me away in his car so I can see Bobby first.   
  
On the way, he joked about trading partners.  
  
I won't in a million years.   
  
Fin 


End file.
